Trinamool to go ahead with Tata plant seige from Sunday

Kolkata, Aug 23 (IANS) Mamata Bannerjee’s Trinamool Congress is sticking to its plans for an indefinite seige of the Tata Motors’ small car project site at Singur from Sunday, party leader Partho Chattopadhya confirmed here Saturday.”We are going ahead with our indefinite agitation and we are strengthening it further,” Chattopadhyay told IANS.

The Trinamool is the principal opposition party in West Bengal and Chattopadhya is the leader of the opposition in the state assembly.

Trinamool Congress-led Krishijami Jiban Jibika Raksha Committee (KJJRC) will launch the agitation at the factory site, some 40 kilometres from here, from Sunday till 400 of the 997 acres acquired for the project is returned to the original owners.

The Tatas say the land is needed to set up factories by component vendors.

The KJJRC convenor Becharam Manna told IANS: “We are making 21 camps around the factory site for this indefinite agitation.”

Other national political party leaders and activists are also joining this agitation.

The Tata Motors project for the Rs.100,000 Nano is coming up on a total area of 997.11 acres. The Tatas are trying to keep costs down by providing land to spare parts and component vendors within the project site.

The Trinamool wants 400 acres of land in the project site to be returned. The party also wants the spare parts and component vendors to shift to another site.

The Tatas say they cannot afford this as the shift will increase transportation and inventory costs and make it very difficult for them to keep the Nano priced at Rs.100,000.

“We want a peaceful agitation but if something goes out of gear it’s the state government’s responsibility,” Chattopadhya said.

The Left Front ruled state government should not unleash any sort of violence on the agitating parties, he added.

“If they at all indulge in any violence we have the right to protect ourselves too,” Chattopadhyay said.

“We are not against industrialization. We are against industrialization on fertile land,” he added.